German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder traveled to Austria on Friday for a brief meeting with his Austrian counterpart to discuss possible military cooperation in Afghanistan and an upcoming European Union summit. The meeting with Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel had originally been scheduled for early January, but Schroeder canceled the trip after it became clear that many German tourists were missing in the tsunami that devastated coastal southeast Asia. The meeting is scheduled to last only a few hours and is expected to focus on a range of topics, including Afghanistan and next week's EU summit on reforms to boost economic growth, the German government press office said. Schroeder then travels to France for a summit meeting also featuring French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The session in Vienna comes only a few weeks after Germany's defense minister asked his Austrian counterpart to examine whether Austria could expand its force levels in Afghanistan, which has an 8,500-strong International Security Assistance Force, Germany has 2,200 troops in the security force, while Austria has 10 staff officers. The security force was set up to support and protect the fledgling Afghan government after U.S. forces and the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forced the hardline Islamic militia from power in late 2001. The force is not part of the 18,000-strong U.S.-led coalition hunting Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts. Austria, a neutral country that is not a member of NATO, has contributed troops to peacekeeping and protection missions.
